High-Octane
Summary
Wildcat is fast-paced, violent fun with plenty of fights, shoot-outs and deliciously nasty villains. It may not reinvent the action genre, but with Kate Beckinsale and Lewis Tan kicking ass, I had an absolute blast with it.
Plot: Wildcat follows an ex-black ops team that reunites to pull off a desperate heist and save the life of an eight-year-old girl.
Review: I’ve been waiting to see Wildcat for what feels like ages and just discovered that it’s now on Prime Video. It stars two of my favourite people: Lewis Tan, who I think is one of the best modern action stars working today, and Kate Beckinsale, who has long since proven that she can more than hold her own in the action genre.
The reviews have been mixed thus far, but that never really bothers me as I always prefer to make up my own mind. Besides, I usually end up loving what the critics hate anyway.
I personally had a blast with Wildcat; it’s packed with action, including multiple fight scenes, shoot-outs and plenty of (mostly CG) explosions. It’s well paced and rarely goes more than a few minutes without another set-piece kicking off, so if you’re looking for something deep and meaningful then you may want to look elsewhere. If, however, you want to watch people getting punched and shot at for a couple of hours, then you’ve come to the right place.
Directed by James Nunn, Wildcat definitely has some Guy Ritchie vibes, especially in terms of the dialogue and characters, which I really enjoyed. There are some nice moments of humour and heart in amongst the carnage, while also giving us some truly Satanic villains. Alice Krige in particular is an absolute monster here and clearly relishes every second of being thoroughly horrible.
Charles Dance only has a small role, but as ever, he steals every scene he’s in. He can make even the simplest piece of dialogue sound Shakespearean, and his speech about his wife towards the end is one of the film’s best moments.
Lewis Tan gets an awesome fight scene which is easily one of the film’s action highlights, and watching it just reminded me why he and Joe Taslim are two of my favourite action stars working today. Tan has the screen presence and physical ability that makes you wonder why he isn’t leading more action movies, so hopefully we’ll continue to see plenty more from him.
Overall, Wildcat may not reinvent the genre, but frankly, I wasn’t asking it to. I wanted action, humour, memorable villains and a few decent fights, and it delivered on that promise. It’s fast-paced, unapologetically violent fun and exactly the kind of movie I can happily throw on again.